a white rose dyed red
by shadowleaves
Summary: Harry Potter became Sue Hitoshi, and no one noticed.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Ao no Exorcist or Harry Potter.**

I.  
"Uncle Vernon! Please! I wasn't lying!" A young boy pleaded to the fat man in a suit as he was dragged by the arm.

"Shut it boy! I've had enough of your lies and your monsters! There are no monsters!" Vernon continued to drag the boy towards the altar, ignoring the looks sent his way from those leaving mass. "We are getting this problem solved!"

"What seems to be the problem here?" the priest addressed the pair as they approached, frowning slightly at the rough grip on the boy's arm. The boy was steadily looking at the ground, while the man was doing a very accurate imitation of a plum.

"This boy here-my nephew," Vernon ground out, "claims to see monsters."

The priest turned to look at the boy curiously. Had the child received a spirit wound? Or were these childhood fantasies spun out of fear? "And what kind of monsters do you see, child?"

"They look like humans, father. But they have horns and there are bugs flying around them." Vernon snorted, looking annoyed at the fact that the priest even asked such a question.

"What is your name, child?"

The boy smiled shyly at the priest. "Harry. Harry Potter."

The priest took off his cross and pressed into the boy's hands. "Well Harry, remember that monsters can't harm you if your faith in the Lord holds true."

Later that day, the priest made a call and reported about a young boy with messy raven hair and emeralds as eyes.

A week later, the boy is brought to Japan and given a new name.

* * *

II.  
A year after Harry Potter was taken away to a private Jesuit school, a boy named Sue Hitoshi was accepted into True Cross Academy.

Sue meant clay, and Hitoshi was leader, but no one noticed anything.

* * *

III.  
"Hello, my name is Sue Hitoshi! Nice to meet you!" the raven-haired boy pumped a fist from his place next to the teacher's desk, "I hope we'll get to know each other!"

The tired-looking teacher sighed. Another energetic one. "Does anyone here have any questions for Sue-kun?" Hands shot up instantly. "Great, let's go one by one."

"Ne ne, what kind of accent is that?"

"It's British. I grew up in England but came over here last year!"

"What kind of exorcist do you want to be?"

"A knight of course! Those demons won't stand a chance!"

The teacher gave up as the questions continued. "That's the end of question time. Sue-kun, please sit in the empty seat next to Okumura-kun," he gestured vaguely at the back of the classroom. "Okumura-kun, raise your hand."

A young boy with freckles and glasses raised his hand. Hitoshi noticed that the other didn't ask a single question during the introduction. As Hitoshi sat down at the indicated seat, he turned to smile at the other boy who also had glasses. "I'm Sue Hitoshi and would you like to be my friend?"

"Let go of yesterday. Let today be a new beginning and be the best that you can, and you'll get to where God wants you to be." -Joel Osteen

* * *

IV.  
"Yukioooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Hitoshi cheered as he saw the other boy approaching school grounds. He ignored the weird grey-haired grandpa person standing next to his friend and proceeded to barrel into Yukio. "I missed you, I missed you, I missed you! Winter break was boriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Clown-baka didn't do anything other than sign paperwork and stalk little children! I wanted to go visit you and then I forgot where you lived and Clown-baka kept ignoring me-"

Yukio smacked Hitoshi on the head and pushed the other glasses-wearing boy off him. "Hito-baka, I can't understand you. And don't call the headmaster a baka."

Hitoshi pouted. "But he is a baka," he finally seemed to notice the chuckling adult standing next to Yukio and turned to greet him. "I'm Sue Hitoshi, Yukio's bestest friend! Nice to meet you, Yukio's grandpa!"

Silence descended upon the courtyard. Then Yukio appeared to choke as he hid his laugh behind a hand.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU LITTLE BRAT?!" a vein pulsed on the grey-haired man's forehead. Hitoshi stared worryingly at it, afraid it would burst. "DO I LOOK OLD TO YOU?!"

"But you have gray hair," Hitoshi replied as if it explained the secret of the universe. "Only old people have grey hair." Yukio was still laughing.

"This hair is NATURAL! Anyway, it's not like a brat like you could understand it," the priest huffed. "The name is Fujimoto Shiro, but you may have the honor of calling me Fujimoto-dono."

Hitoshi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Nice to meet you again, oji-san! But why did your parents name you 'white' when you had grey hair?"

Fujimoto took a deep breath. Yukio spotted the signs of another explosion and grabbed Hitoshi and ran. "Bye tou-san! See you at dinner tonight!" he waved back cheerfully and dragged Hitoshi across the courtyard and into the entrance.

"WAIT! THAT OLD MAN IS YOUR DAD?!" Hitoshi's surprised exclamation drifted back to where Fujimoto was standing, causing the man to yell back.

"I'M NOT OLD YOU BRAT!" Fujimoto frowned but as he listened to the laughter that drifted over the wind he grinned to himself.

"A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably." -William Penn

* * *

V.  
"Those of you who wish to be a dragoon or knight but has not chosen a weapon yet will be granted an opportunity to do so this period. But keep in mind that you are expected to procure a mentor and train on your own," the instructor ground out in a monotone. "Raise your hand if that describes you."

Yukio raised his hand dutifully, and then looked at Hitoshi who was asleep and drooling on his desk. He reached over and brought up his friend's limp arm.

"Very well then. Please follow me right now. The rest of you wait in the classroom and go over the descriptions for each meister carefully." the instructor didn't even bat an eye at Hitoshi's state. By this point, all the instructors were used to the boy falling asleep in class, but it was fine as long as the boy managed to keep his grades up.

Yukio looked over at the sleeping Hitoshi again. He sighed and dragged his friend out of his desk and all the way to the weaponry room. By the time Hitoshi opened his eyes, he was in front of a huge door and the teacher was talking.

"-and this is the weaponry storage for the Japanese branch of the True Cross Order. Some of these weapons have sentience, so if you are suitable for one of those, you will feel an instinctive pull. Please do not play around with the weapons, or you will not be issued a weapon."

"Yukio," Hitoshi whispered conspiratorially, "What happened?"

Yukio replied without taking his eyes off the teacher. "Knight. Dragoon. Weapon."

The green-eyed foreigner made an 'oh' face and gave Yukio a thumbs-up.

"Now you may enter and choose your weapons. Please be carefully," the teacher opened the heavy looking wooden doors and four students walked in.

Yukio gravitated towards the ranged-weapons automatically, while Harry went to the swords. There were shelves of swords, with some being displayed opened while most were stored in boxes on shelves. Harry walked past the displays of impressive-looking blades until he reached the shelves, which probably had decades or centuries of dust accumulated on them.

A frown appeared on Hitoshi's face as he narrowed his gaze to one of the boxes. It looked the same as any other box, but there was a feeling of comfort emitting from it. Tentatively, he picked up the box from the shelf and the lightness of the box threw him off-balance for a second.

Cradling the box to his chest, Hitoshi waited till he had arrived back at the entrance to open it. Yukio and another of his classmates were already there, and both of them were seated on the ground and looking at their weapons.

"What's in there?" Yukio asked curiously, and Hitoshi shrugged in reply.

Setting the box down gently, Hitoshi put his finger over the top and hissed when a pin picked his palm. "Are they supposed to do that?" he asked warily, staring at the box that was opening itself layer by layer. An elegant rapier appeared, looking like it was entirely made out of silver with a rose-styled cross guard.

"Wow," Hitoshi gasped while Yukio peeked over at it. "It's beautiful."

"It indeed is," the instructor remarked dryly as he walked over with the last student, who was clutching at a staff taller than she was. "That is the Ivory Rose, a sword crafted during the 16th century by the Eastern Orthodox Church, to honor the archangel Barachiel. And Okumura-kun, the pair of handguns you have acquired are unnamed, but they contain some of the most advanced technology the True Cross Order has to offer."

Both of the boys stopped listening after that. They grinned and gave each other a high five.

"Do you think I can stab the headmaster with this?" Hitoshi asked Yukio, looking dead serious.

"Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now." -Mattie Stepanek

* * *

VI.  
Hitoshi didn't want to be an Aria. It was all about memorization, but what he was doing right now was cool.

"Can I try anything?" Hitoshi asked excitedly as the old lady teaching nodded. "Really? Anything?"

"Yes, anything," the old lady sighed, "say whatever Bible verse you want and try to channel pow-"

"Out of the brightness of his presence; bolts of lightning blazed forth!" Something in his chest tingled, and Hitoshi felt it as it coursed down to his outstretched hand. The result was five miniature lightning bolts shooting out of his fingers and setting half the classroom on fire.

For a second the class was silent. The fire cackled merrily and smoke bellowed out from destroyed desks and chairs.

The teacher took in a strangled breath. "From now on, no one will try to invoke biblical verses without a teacher's guidance," she then hit the fire alarm, "Now, everyone please evacuate the classroom in an orderly manner."

"Hito-baka!" Yukio frowned at his friend who alternated between looking at his work in awe and fear.

"Not my fault!" he protested.

"Of course not," Yukio sighed.

"Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something." -Morihei Ueshiba

* * *

VII.  
Yukio was at an amusement park with Hitoshi.

Officially, it was a training trip devised by Paladin Fujimoto to recognize demons in daily life for the top two students of the cram school. Unofficially, it was Fujimoto-ojisan treating two of his favorite brats to a day off.

Hitoshi hasn't stopped talking ever since they arrived, and Yukio was beginning to get tired of his rambling. One second Hitoshi was talking his mouth off about rollercoaster physics, and the next he wasn't anywhere in sight.

When Yukio turned back to look for his friend, he found Hitoshi staring at a candy floss seller. "Yukio," Hitoshi asked, "what is that?"

It was the first time Yukio saw Hitoshi for who he truly is. Hitoshi, despite all his talent, was just another lost and innocent child like him.

"This?" Yukio smiled gently and paid for a bag of the fluffy treat, "is candy floss. It is one of the most unhealthy foods in existence but a must have for every festival and amusement park."

Hitoshi beamed back at Yukio, and he had a look of wonder on his face the entire time as the candy floss melted in his mouth.

"We do not remember days, we remember moments." -Cesare Pavese

* * *

VIII.  
"Now cadets! It is time for your tamer lessons!" the energetic teenage teacher all but flounced to the front of the classroom. "Your potential as a tamer is not decided by anything but the will of the gods, so don't be disappointed if you can't summon a familiar! That being said, tamers still require an enormous amount of mental strength, as demons will not obey anyone weaker than them!"

Hitoshi looked at the teacher cautiously. "Ne ne, do you think he's any better than our Aria teacher...? He seems..." Hitoshi twirled a finger around his temple.

"Don't be rude," Yukio sighed, knocking Hitoshi's hand out of the air. "But he does seem a little more enthusiastic than our other teachers."

The teacher continued with his endless spew of information. "In order to summon a demon, you need to draw one of these badass circles, which will keep the demon contained. But if you break the circle, or destroy your summoning sheet, the demon will go kaboom and return to Gehenna. Demons also require blood to form a contract, so go stab your finger with a needle or something."

"Or something," Hitoshi echoed ominously. A butcher knife appeared in his hand and the teacher screamed in a very unmanly voice.

"Pu-ut that down!"

The lesson ended with Hitoshi unconscious, Yukio worried, the teacher screaming, and the class in dead silence.

"The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity." -Lucius Annaeus Seneca

* * *

VIII.  
Hitoshi doesn't wake up until a week later. And then he remained bedridden for another.

He's glad that Yukio doesn't ask, because then he wouldn't have to lie.

"Ne, Yukio," Hitoshi asked, "Do you think we can go eat candy floss at the summer festival again?"

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." -Oprah Winfrey

* * *

IX.  
They never got to go to the summer festival.

Three days later, the Vatican came and took Hitoshi away.

"It's his destiny," Fujimoto said to Yukio, "There is nothing that can be done."

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." -Marcus Aurelius

* * *

X.  
The next time Yukio saw Hitoshi, he found the other sitting on the church steps.

Hitoshi was dressed in a muddied cassock that could have been white at some point, and his feet were bare and marked with bloody gashes. His hair had grown longer and was tied back in a ponytail that was threatening to fall apart any moment.

Yukio couldn't stay anything, but he didn't need to. The moment Hitoshi saw him, Yukio found himself with an armful of sobbing best friend. Somehow Yukio managed to steer both of them up the stairs and into the kitchen, where Rin was preparing dinner.

"Hey Yukio!" Rin peeked over the kitchen counter, "You're ba-." At the sight of the sobbing and injured boy in his brother's arms, he quieted down and wordlessly went to get the medical kit.

Yukio looked at Rin gratefully as he set the medical kit down on the table next to him as he maneuvered Hitoshi onto a bench. "Hitoshi," Yukio started, sounding like he was talking to a injured animal. "I need to treat your wounds. Can you tell me where you're hurt?"

Hitoshi didn't raise his head from where it was buried in Yukio's shoulder and instead clutched onto his shirt even more tightly. "Feet," Hitoshi hiccuped.

For the rest of the hour, Yukio, along with Rin, picked bits of gravel and branches out of Hitoshi's feet, wincing every time a wound reopened. Yukio's heart tore with every drop blood that spilled.

When the rest of the church clergy peered into the dining room and found a pair of tired twins and a ragged-looking boy, they ordered takeout without a single word.

That evening, when Father Fujimoto saw the once cheerful boy clinging onto Yukio like a lifeline with feet wrapped in bandages and red-rimmed eyes, there was a very loud and angry phone call throughout the night.

"You can stay here for a month," Father Fujimoto told him the next morning.

Sue Hitoshi looked up, startled. Because here he could be a child again, not 'prodigy' or 'genius' or anything else. "Thank you," he smiled hesitantly, "Oji-san."

"I'm not old!"

"A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside." -Denis Waitley

* * *

XI.  
 _"Yukio, I missed you so much," Hitoshi cried again that night, and Yukio doesn't know what could hurt happy and energetic Hitoshi so much. "I want to stay here with you forever."_

 _"Then stay," Yukio answered. "Father can teach us and protect us. You don't need to go back."_

 _"But Yukio," Hitoshi shuddered, "They'll find me. They'll always find me and bring me back."_

 _Yukio embraced his best friend. "Then I'll protect you. I'll get stronger so that I can stand with you against the world."_

"Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness." -Euripides

* * *

XII.  
"Onii-san! Hito-baka! Wait for me!" Yukio shouted while chasing after the other two children who were racing each other to the rollercoaster line.

"Not my fault you're such a slowpoke!" Rin hollered back, "The early bird gets the worm!"

Yukio blew a vein. "OUT OF ALL THE POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS FOR THAT SAYING, YOU ONLY APPLY IT TO THE AMUSEMENT PARK?!"

Hitoshi laughed at the argument occurring between the twins. "Come on you guys, let's just all have some fun while it lasts. Let's hurry up so we can get candy floss later."

That month passed fast.

"If you realize too acutely how valuable time is, you are too paralyzed to do anything." -Katharine Butler Hathaway

* * *

XIII.  
Years passed - Yukio, in his own right became known as a prodigy, Rin finished middle school, and Hitoshi disappeared into the ranks of the Vatican without another message.

But Hitoshi continued to watch over them.

The Paladin, Fujimoto, died, and Okumura Rin was admitted to True Cross Academy under the tutelage of his own brother, Okumura Yukio. Demon attacks occurred with increasing frequency, and a desperate need for a new Paladin rose. The Grigori appointed Arthur A. Angel as the new Paladin, and the appointment of a radical and hotheaded Paladin was the catalyst for a long chain of misfortunes.

"Grigoris Baraqiel, Melchior, and Casper, the Paladin has requested an audience with you over the treachery of Headmaster Mephistopheles."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This story is in progress, and follows the anime plot rather than the manga plot. This story has not been betaed or edited, and the plot might have gone through a dramatic twist somewhere in the middle. But please think of this as a New Year's gift or an offering of peace, as I am certainly not retired from writing, just very busy and very tired.

If anyone wants to make a spin-off, go ahead. If anyone wants to write some of my other stories, go ahead. There are even more prompts on my profile if people are interested. Just notify me when you post it.


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